Toronto, Can.- Rev. A. T. Bowser is spending his vacation at Hull, Mass. During July his pulpit will be filled by Rev. A. S. Garver, of Worcester, Mass., who is staying at Niagara. During August the church will be closed for alterations and repairs. JOTTINGS. The London Daily News tells this interesting anecdote in a sketch of the late Laura Bridgman. When Carlyle impertinently asked, "What great or noble thing has America ever done?" somebody replied, "She has produced a girl, deaf, dumb and blind from infancy, who, from her own earnings, has sent a barrel of flour to the. starving subjects of Great Britain in Ireland." Miss Helen Chalmers, the daughter of the celebrated Scotch divine, lives in one of the lowest parts of Edinburgh. Her home consists of a few rooms in an alley, surrounded by drunkenness, poverty and suffering. It is stated that she goes out every night into the lanes of the city with her lantern, and she never returns to her quarters without one or more girls or women she has taken from the street. The people love her and she is never molested or insulted. After the late fire in Seattle, prohibition reigned for several days. Most of the dives and saloons were burned and the Mayor prohibited the rest from reopening. Thousands of lemonade stands sprang up and many men began to appreciate temperance drinks. A new beverage, strawberry lemonade, had a great sale and was pronounced by many, even drinkers, to be better than beer. Temporary prohibition worked so well that a petition was presented, signed by more than a thousand leading citizens, asking that all saloons in the city be kept closed for three months in the interest of rapid rebuilding. roundish face, with a little dab of a nose, upon which it is a perpetual wonder how he keeps his spectacles, a sweet but rather piping voice with something of the childish treble about it, and a very tall, slightly stooping figure." Poor Walt Whitman, like every other author of any prominence, has to suffer from the incursions of ambitious young flattery, and advertising, all gratis. One of writers who want advice, encouragement, these called upon him the other day with a tragedy in MS. "Mr. Whitman," said he, I should like to read you my drama and get your opinion of its merits." "No, I thank you," said the old gentleman, "I've been paralyzed once.” 66 A handsomely dressed young woman enkered old fellow, wearing a dingy slouch tered a crowded street-car. A long-whishat and a suit of homespun clothes, got up, and said: 'Miss, take my seat. I don't look as well as these here gentlemen,"nodding to several men, "but I've diskivered that I've got more politeness." The the old fellow. "Miss," said the old fellow, young woman sat down without thanking with a smile, "I b'leve I left my pocketbook thar on that seat. Will you please get up?" The young woman got up. The old fellow sat down, and stroking his whiskers, remarked: "B'leve I'll jest keep on settin' here, Miss. I've got a leetle more politeness than these here gentlemen, but I have diskivered that I ain't got nigh so much sense."-Arkansas Traveller. In an article in the Century on "General Lee After the War," Mrs. Margaret J. Preston says of the great Southern chief: "I remember hearing him say, in a presence where such testimony was worth more than a dozen temperance lectures: Men need no stimulant; it is something, I am persuaded, that they can do without. When I went into the field, at the beginning of the war, a good lady friend of mine gave me two sealed bottles of very superb French brandy. I carried them with me through the entire campaign; and when I met my friend again, after all was over, I gave her back both bottles of brandy with the seals unbroken. It may have been some comfort to me to know that I had them in case of sudden emergency, but the moment never came when I needed to use them."" The Rev. William Henry Beecher, who died in June at the age of 87, was one of the seven Beecher brothers (sons of Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher) who all became preachers and several of them quite famous. brothers were William Henry, Henry Ward, George, and James C. Beecher, all deceased; Dr. Edward Beecher, Charles Beecher, and Thomas K. Beecher. Of the sisters, Mrs. Thomas C. Perkins, the mother of Mrs. Edward Everett Hale, now lives in Boston, and Mrs. John Hooker and Mrs. Harriet. Beecher Stowe live in Hartford. SELECT PUBLICATIONS. We select from the Publications of Ginn & Co., Boston, the following list of books which we believe will be of special interest to our readers. For the price named, the books will be sent post-paid to any address: Alexander, William John (Ph. D.). Introduction to the Poetry of Robert Browning. Cloth. 12mo, $1.10. Arnold, Thomas (M. A.). English Literature. Historical and Critical. Cloth. 12mo, $1.65. Ballou, Maturin M. Footprints of Travel; or, Journeyings in Many Lands. Cloth. 12mo, $1.10; boards, 80 cents. Burt, B. C. (M. A.). A Brief History of Greek Philosophy. Cloth. 12mo, $1,25. Calkins, Mary Whiton. Sharing the Profits. Paper. 12mo, 25 cents. Clark, John B. [August The Logic of Reason, Universal and Eternal. 8vo, $1.60. Humanity Immortal. 8vo, $1.75. Lambert, W. H. Memory Gems in Prose and Verse. 12mo, 35 cents. Leib, W. H. Voices of Children. (Principles and Discipline in Training). Cloth. 12mo, 45 cents. Montgomery, D. H. Benjamin Franklin. His Autobiography, with Notes. Illustrated. Cloth, 60 cents; boards, 50 cents. Minto, William (M. A.). Characteristics of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Shirley. Cloth. 12mo, $1.65. Moore, Miss N. Pilgrims and Puritans. Illustrated. Cloth. 12mo, 70 cents. Macy, Jesse. Our Government: How it Grew; What it Does; and How it Does it. Cloth. 12mo, The Philosophy of Wealth. Cloth. 12mo, 78 cents. $1.10. Claude, Mary S. Twilight Thoughts. Stories for Children and Child Lovers: Edited by Mary L. Avery, with a Preface by Matthew Arnold. Cloth. 12mo, 50 cents. Culver, H. H. An Epitome of Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene,-Including the Effects of Alcohol and Tobacco. Boards. 8vo, 25 cents. Fulton, Robt. I., and Trueblood, Thos. C. Goss, W. F. M. Bench Work in Wood. Illustrated. Cloth. 12mo, 80 cents. Gummere, Francis B. (Ph. D.). A Hand-Book of Poetics. Cloth. 12mo, $1.10. Hudson, Henry N. (LL. D.). The Harvard Edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works. Cloth. 20 vol. edition, $25.00. 10 vol. edition, $20.00. Life, Art, and Characters of Shakespeare. Cloth, 2 vols. 12mo, $4.00. Text-Book of Poetry. Cloth. 12mo, $1.40. Selections of Prose and Poetry. Paper. 12mo, 20 cents. Hale, Gertrude Elizabeth. Newell, Miss Jane H. Wiltse, Sara E. Stories for Kindergartens and Primary Schools. Illustrated. Cloth, 40 cents; paper, 30 cents. Woodward, Miss L. J. Number Stories. (Readings in Arithme Little Flower-People. Illustrated. Cloth. tic for Children). 12mo, 45 cents. 12mo, 50 cents. Hickok, Laurens P. Rational Psychology. 8vo, $1.95. Creator and Creation. 8vo, $1.75. Young, Charles A. (Ph. D.). General Astronomy. A Text-book for colleges and technical schools. With Cuts and Diagrams. Half-morocco, $2.25. VOL. IV. A Monthly Magazine of Liberal Christianity. EMPEDOCLES. SEPTEMBER, 1889. Jesus also wrought Like you for such. You knew him not. As the sun, the flower, So Israel's prophets painted him. Him the prophets named Oh Sage! The ground of things you aimed To reach; they, aching hearts to soothe. Wise in every art, You told men how the world was made, Grim chaos, lovéd child of Hate. Better still, you said, "Like only can by like be known;" Mind fathoms mind; the heart, love's tread. Nature has Nature's secrets read, While sprites together in converse roam. Ancient sage, you saw But half the truth from where you stood. Rives Junction, Mich. A. B. CURTIS. No. 9. WHAT IS WRONG IN THE PRESENT ECONOMIC CONDITIONS. A SERMON, BY REV. THOMAS VAN NESS, DENVER, COL. We belong to society. It is an impe fect society, in which there is much unhappiness, injustice and misery. How can it be made better, i. e., how can it be made better, not for a few who find it pleasant enough, but for the great mass of humanity? To this question we have many answers. Writers and thinkers have different plans. Each would-be reformer thinks if only his suggestion be accepted, the ideal condition will be made a reality. What is the weakness of most of these Utopian plans? They are national, not international. They seek to regenerate some one particular State, instead of the world. They fail to take into account that no one State liveth to itself, and that if the condition they advocate were a reality to-day, in any one country, some disturbance, or war, or treachery, on the part of another State would to-morrow, perhaps, disarrange the whole thing. Even the best of these plans, the most wide-reaching and universal, has one fatal defect. What is that? It would bring about peace and happiness, which are internal conditions, by external change of state. This is contrary to law, to nature. One system alone does not make this mistake. It is the Christian system. It would begin from within and work out. This is according to the law of development, this is nature's way. The Christian system is worldembracing. The promulgator of it saw that it was necessary to found a universal commonwealth, embracing all men. This he tried to do. Citizenship in this world-state is absolutely free to every man and woman willing to take the oath of allegiance. This once taken, every person is bound by it to do what he can to extend the limits of the state, to work for its ideal, "the perfection of hu manity." In short, each must work for the good of his brother. But how? This is the question pressing upon us for fuller answer. We will suppose now that every man in this church wishes so to act that what he does shall be not only for his own benefit, but for the benefit of those around him. How shall he best proceed? How does the founder of the universal commonwealth tell him to proceed? What are the regulations? Search the New Testament carefully. You will find no long list of rules. True, you will find what are called by Tolstoi the "Five Commandments of Christ," but few definite laws, such as those bound up in our ponderous lawbooks, which, for instance, tell the peo ple of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or of Colorado what duties they owe one to another and to the Statelaws at times so involved, and at other times so loosely drawn up as to require the careful interpretation of certain men set apart for their study, called lawyers and judges. I repeat, the Christian commonwealth has no such elaborate laws, and though it has interpreters (called preachers and ministers) of the rules that were promulgated, yet so plain and simple are these that the humblest citizen can understand them without the help of learned teachers. can be created, then it is most valuable, and when all men possess it then there is no more need for outward coercion and law courts. This inward restraint may be inherited. Long generations of right acting people may have made it an hereditary birthright, or it may come from the fact that careful education has shown a man the hurtfulness of wrong actions on himself as well as on others. In the latter case, though he know what is right, it does not always follow that the power of his thought will be sufficient to conquer the power of temptation and passion. Often the sad spectacle is presented of men doing wrong through the strength of their passions, although their thought tells them quite truly the after consequences of such debauch. Another way to work is, not through a man's mind, i. e., not so much to give him good thoughts as to give him a grand passion-one that will subdue and conquer all baser passions, and like a burning flame, eat out the dross and impurity of his nature. In this way Christ worked. He tried to fill men's hearts with the passion of love; first, for a Heavenly Father so good, kind and perfect, as to be worthy of all adoration, and then love for one another, as God's children, and as brothers. If love can be infused into a man, it works wonderful transformations, e. g., the man into whose heart has come the love for a pure, high-minded, noble woman. Before his nature was so inThe reason for this lack of rule and fluenced, he may have committed unregulation is quite apparent. If I have chaste acts which now he hates even to no desire in me to kill, murder, steal, think of. He still has the old sensual commit adultery, or to plunge into passion, but the new passion is so much beastly drunkenness, what use is there stronger that it drives out of his nature to lay down laws forbidding me to do even suggestions of improper conduct. these things? I have, within myself, a So, too, with a selfish and avaricious strong tendency, or inner law, which man. War breaks out. His native counkeeps me from the doing of wrong try is in peril. He is aroused to endeeds, independent of the fact that they thusiasm and valiantly fights for his beare interdicted. Were I to live where loved land. Money is offered him by such acts are allowed, among Patagoni- the enemy if he will betray the camp. ans or Ashantees, I would not be more His love for money still remains, but he likely to commit them. Not outside indignantly rejects the treasonable overcoercion, but inward restraint, constrains tures because love of country and of me. Whence this inward restraint? home inflames his heart. Such love for How can it be created? for clearly, if it the race-for man as seen in Christ— Paul had, and many a martyr who gladly endured pain and suffering, buoyed up by this supreme and holy passion, which the Greeks called agape, which we call love. Love, then, in Christ's system, is not only the inner impelling force to do good, but also the inner constraining force which will keep us from doing wrong. The mother, with love in her heart for her child, Jesus might say, does not need to be told to clothe it, feed it, educate it; neither does she need to be told not to hurt it, or not to neglect it, or not to treat it cruelly. Her love is a law unto itself, and will impel and restrain correctly. Love, then, for one's fellows-for one's neighbor-is apparently the first thing Jesus would infuse into every man. Such a passion, serving for the inner impelling power, will lead men to right acts and keep them from wrong acts without a long list of regulations commencing, "Thus shalt thou do," or "Thou shalt not do." Take the case of the mother. Is not something more needed? Granted she has this impelling desire, at the same time she must know what articles of diet are best for the child; how it should be clothed in summer and again in winter; how best to bring out its latent talents; what schools are most helpful; and a hundred other things equally important. All such things need careful thought and study, and without such thought, her uninstructed love may do harm as well as good. To advance in our subject, let us imagine that every man in this church not only has a desire to act for the benefit of others as well as of himself, but possesses this positive love enjoined by Christ for his fellows, so that he would seek their interests and serve them, the question still remains unanswered," How shall he best do it?" Again we turn to the founder of the commonwealth to see what he dictates. The first thing that strikes our attention is the story of the good Samaritan. This story shows that Jesus would have us relieve physical suffering. We are confirmed in this opinion by the words of the Judge in the allegorical picture of the end of the world: "I was an hungered and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink; a stranger and ye took me not in; naked and ye clothed me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited me not." Apparently, then, our love, if it be worth anything, if it be of the true,. genuine Christian kind, must go out in kindly acts, in the alleviation of distress and in the binding of the brokenhearted. Yes, all this we believe, still our question of what shall we do, is not answered. Are we to infer that our duty as citizens of the Ideal State is performed, when, if we see a poor Chinaman or negro by the wayside, bleeding and torn, we help him, and bind up his wounds? and if we regularly visit the State and county prisons and hospitals? Is our obligation to the commonwealth discharged, by sending clothes for the destitute to the Ladies' Relief, and food for the hungry to the public soup houses and restaurants? Is there nothing more to do? Is this all our duty to the unfortunates? Who to-day would say so? Though such conduct might be unselfish, it would not be the wisest. Something more is needed. The mere following out, in this year, 1889, A. D., of things prescribed 1900 years ago, would be foolish, and here we see why Christ laid down so few rules and regulations. Because, such laws, let them be drafted ever so wisely, would in time be outgrown on account of the always varying conditions of each new century. No, we must not expect, then, to find promulgated laws telling Christian citizens what to do and what not to do. All we are told is: Firstlove your neighbor, your brother; second-do what you can to make it comfortable and pleasant for him if he is in physical or mental distress; third-do it as your best thought and experience tells you you would like it done unto yourself. To this point our Leader and Guide conducts us. He then bids us farewell. We must make our precedents. So, then, we must study and think carefully before we act. How comes a Chinaman lying there bleeding, on the |